The 94th Kenya National Music Festival that is taking place in Kisumu city has brought along profit to small-scale traders in the lakeside city and its surrounding.
Traders have thronged the various festival venues to sell commodities ranging from edibles to clothing and jewelry in a bid to cash in and make profits from the over 70,000 participants.
Although business activities inside the venues were limited to specific people after thorough scrutiny, some traders got a chance to put up temporary makeshift hotels while others got the chance to sell their products by the gates. This has helped students and pupils access their needs with much ease.
As traders continue reaping many profits from the event, however, they have faced various challenges mainly the high cost of transportation due to the increased fuel prices and high cost of production for some other goods being sold hence forcing them to increase the price of the commodities.
John Owadho, an ice cream vendor has accredited the increase in the price of ice cream and cold drinks to the recently increased electricity token and units.
“I spend close to Sh1500 on electricity tokens and units alone to power my refrigerators and electric appliances in order to produce ice creams and other products and that is without the inclusion of transport expenditure to and from,” said John.
As the event still goes on, the traders still request to be allowed to sell their commodities inside the venues since some students are restricted from getting out of the vicinity. Despite the challenges, traders are still hopeful that they will get more profits as the event still has five more days to end.
The music concert that is happening at Kisumu Girls and Kisumu Boys high Schools, Arya and MM Shah primary schools entered day four on Monday and is set to wind up on 24 September.
Learners from different schools and colleges across the country that proceed to the national level are set to perform various items that range from music, dance and elocution.
By Fleiss Akoko and Becky Galyns
